features

20 Closing the Physician-Staff Divide: A Step Toward Creating the Medical Home (PDF available)

Benjamin F. Crabtree, PhD, Reuben R. McDaniel, EdD, Paul A. Nutting, MD, MSPH, Holly J. Lanham, MBA, J. Anna Looney, PhD, and William L. Miller, MD, MA

If your staff's job is to keep patients moving through the system and yours is to take care of the patients they supply, your practice is flawed.

25 Stark III: Refinement Not Revolution (Part 2) (PDF available)

Alice G. Gosfield, JD

The regulations include good news for physicians who work with hospitals.

29 How to Protect Your Data When You're on the Web (PDF available)

Adarsh K. Gupta, DO, MS

Every time you access the Internet, a world of criminals is trying to steal personal information - yours and your patients'. Here's how to stop them.

37 What You Need to Know When Called Upon to Be a Good Samaritan (PDF available)

Robert J. Dachs, MD, and Jay M. Elias, JD

Understanding your legal protections and ethical obligations can make it easier to respond when duty calls.

following page 16

This section is included in copies mailed to AAFP members
and FPM paid subscribers. For more information, see http://www.aafp.org/fpm/bonuscontent.

A1 CME QUIZ

Earn 4.25 CME credits.

A3 A Systematic Approach to Identifying Drug-Seeking Patients (PDF available)

Richard W. Pretorius, MD, MPH, and Gina M. Zurich, PharmD, BCPS

When patients present with suspicious complaints of pain, these seven steps can help you prevent the misuse of prescription drugs.

A6 Group Visits: Helping High-Need Patients Make Behavioral Change (PDF available)

Jean Antonucci, MD

The most difficult patients have one thing in common: They need to change their health habits. Group visits can help them.

DEPARTMENTS

7 from the editor

A Quick Tour of the Changes in FPM

Robert L. Edsall

Board here. The tour bus is about to depart.

8 opinion

Why Teamwork Will Make or Break Your Practice

Bruce Bagley, MD

Without it, practice transformation and optimal outcomes will be difficult to achieve.

11 letters

Contemplating Robin Hood practice • Patient vs. "customer-owner" • Evaluating the RUC • Curing Baumol's disease

14 news & trends

2008 Match results: Family medicine shows slight improvement • Communities needed for EHR demonstration project • Majority of family physicians wouldn't do it again despite strong job market

42 Coding & Documentation

Cindy Hughes, CPC

Tobacco cessation codes • Specimen transfer to lab • Home health services • Diagnosis code for prothrombin time testing • Hospital discharge when the patient dies • Hepatitis test • Nebulizer supplies

44 practice pearls

Tracking follow-up care • Monitor records transfers • Use analogies to increase patient compliance • Have a garage sale • Focus on special needs

48 the last word

A New Epidemic: Administrative Fibrillation

William E. Chavey, MD

If you're prone to overcommitment, you may be at risk for A-fib.

6 CONTACT US

45 CLASSIFIEDS